Fan of Fans

I cannot stand to be hot. For the past four weeks I have complained about how hot it is in my school no less than 23 times a day. It's so hot! Sweaty gross hot. Back to School Night almost did me in. To teach all day in a hot, sticky room and then try to look presentable in front of parents was near impossible. In fact I might have mentioned a few of the school board members' telephone numbers during my presentation. (I really didn't in case my boss ever reads this -- but boy did I want to.) My thought is you can always put on a sweater, but you can only take so many things off. Believe it or not this year is not the worst year when it comes to temperature. My first year at my current school Utah had a record hot May. More 100 degree tempertures recorded in a month than ever before. That was also the year that my air conditioner thought it was an F-16, or at least it did an incredibly realistic impression of one, and then upon discovering that it was securely fastened to the concrete and would never realize its dream to soar high above the clouds, it gave up its will to cool and died. Two long years of sweltering heat followed, school then home, then school, then home. Until I finally saved enough money to buy the biggest, baddest, "coolest" central air unit on the block. My neighbors had air conditioner envy. It is a beautiful machine. It will be hard to say goodbye when I move later this month but the new place still has central air so I'm good to go.

During those years without air conditioning, the only thing that helped me make it through those long hot nights was this:

The biggest ugliest ceiling fan ever made. It came with the house. One night it actually came detached from the ceiling and was dangling by the electrical wiring. Thankfully Mark rushed over and secured it to the ceiling again, but the image of those brown wicker blades spinning out of control scarred me for life. As luck would have it exactly one week ago I broke it. I pulled too hard on the chain and oops, there it goes. I have been living with this thing for close to nine years and I break it one month before I move. Grrr. So I dragged Melanie to Home Depot and she helped me pick out the cheapest new ceiling fan I could find.


I actually have a lot of experience with fans. They are positioned strategically around my classroom in an effort to keep the lil' ones cool and calm. The first day everyone also makes their personal fans to keep in their desks at all time.Notice the cute crayon sorter tucked in the shelf.

Sometimes I turn this fan on the students and sometimes I just face it right on me. It depends on how generous I'm feeling.
After one week in the classroom my student teacher came with two more fans. They don't stand upright but if I'm going to plug them into an extension cord and drape it across the table anyway so what if I tip it on a chair. I know the fire inspector would not approve.
Finally, here is the newly installed ceiling fan, complete with energy efficient light bulbs.This isn't a fan, but Adam likes to refer to it as "The Stool of Shame" I keep telling him that's not where misbehaving students sit. I sit there when I read a chapter from our novel after lunch while the kids fan themselves, guzzle water, and can't hear a thing because we have four fans going in the classroom.

Next week they are forecasting temperatures in the 80s. That better be the truth or a certain weather forecaster might be getting a threatening telephone call.